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No. 7 Miami Crushes Notre Dame 68-50

Notre Dame no longer controls its destiny in regards to earning a double bye in the ACC Tournament.

Notre Dame (19-10, 10-7 ACC) fell 68-50 to visiting No. 7 Miami (24-5, 13-4 ACC) on Wednesday night, while shooting just 17 of 50 (34.0 percent) from the field in a blowout defeat. The Irish now trail Duke (22-8, 11-6 ACC) by one game for the No. 4 seed in the ACC Tournament, and both teams have just one game remaining.

Bonzie Colson scored 11 points in Notre Dame’s loss to No. 7 Miami on Wednesday night.
Bonzie Colson scored 11 points in Notre Dame’s loss to No. 7 Miami on Wednesday night. (BGI/Joe Raymond)

The key stretch of the game came in the opening minutes. Miami jumped out to a 12-0 lead before the first media timeout on blazing, 5-of-6 shooting from the field, compared to an 0-of-6 start for the Irish. Notre Dame’s first bucket didn’t come until the 14:28 mark, a rare three-point make by freshman guard Rex Pflueger.

The Hurricanes answered Pflueger’s bucket with another big run — this one 9-0 — to grab an astounding 21-3 lead with 12:05 remaining in the initial period.

At the midway point of the first half, Miami still led by an incredulous margin at 25-8. The Canes hit 10 of their first 14 shots, and even had two offensive rebounds on their four misses.

It was an early blowout in every facet. Notre Dame was playing desperate to grab anything that even resembled momentum.

“You can’t get off to a start like that and try to dig out of a hole against a team like that,” head coach Mike Brey said. “We went with Burg [A.J. Burgett] today to open the floor a bit, and that didn’t help us.

“I thought bringing Bonzie [Colson] off the bench, maybe we get him back into junkyard dog mode, because the last time we brought him off the bench he got on a great run. I kind of still want to do that, because I think we got on a nice run with him doing that.”

The Irish did cut the deficit to 11 at 29-18 at the 4:18 mark of the half, then 29-22 after buckets from senior forward Zach Auguste and junior guard Demetrius Jackson.

But three straight Notre Dame turnovers helped Miami go back up 11, before an eventual 35-22 halftime margin. The Irish finished the first period just 7 of 27 (25.9 percent) from the field, including 2 of 11 (18.2 percent) from three-point range.

“I would have liked to see how the second half would have been if you don’t turn it over three times in the final minutes of the first half,” Brey said. “The zone bought us a little time, but we’ve been scoring in the 50s for a while, and when you score in the 50s, you lose a lot of those.

“We’ve got to try and find a rhythm. You get into the dog days of the season and it gets interesting sometimes. I don’t think we’ve been in a very good rhythm since the bye week. I don’t know if you lose practice rhythm or whatever. But I told them, ‘We’ll figure it out because that’s what we do around here.’ We usually figure it out.”

Sophomore forward Bonzie Colson opened the second half scoring six points for the Irish, but Notre Dame only traded baskets with Miami and the Hurricanes still led 41-28 at the 15:26 mark.

Numerous times early in the second half, the Irish cut the deficit to nine, 10 or 11 points — but Miami would answer with a quick bucket, including a couple from long distance, to push the lead back out and seemingly break any momentum Notre Dame was striving for.

“We never really did [break the barrier],” Brey said. “I’ve been in this a long time — that was kind of fake.

“When we got it to 12 or 11 against these guys … I’ve told them in the last seven minutes, I’ve seen crazier things happen, and you’ve done crazier things to finish. Just didn’t have that feel today against this team, because I really respect them and I think they’re really good.”

Miami still led 49-36 at the 11:04 mark and 55-42 at the 8:29 mark, maintaining that lead essentially the remainder of the game before the 68-50 final.

Auguste finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds, marking his 17th double-double of the season.

The Irish next host North Carolina State on Saturday to close out the regular season. Tipoff is scheduled for noon ET.

Pittsburgh fell 65-61 to Virginia Tech on Wednesday night, which eliminates them from contending for the ACC double bye. The Irish must beat the Wolfpack on Saturday, then Duke must lose at home to North Carolina for Notre Dame to snag the conference’s final double bye.

Box Score: LINK.

Game Notes:

• The Irish fell to 10-10 in the all-time series against the Hurricanes.

• Mike Brey is now 4-3 in his Notre Dame career against Miami.

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